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Merit Foundation takes aim at Ontario College of Trades

The Ontario College of Trades (OCOT) is the first target on the newly formed Merit Foundation radar.
The foundation was formed to help raise funds for lobbying and coordination efforts issues important to Merit Ontario.

“The creation of the Ontario College of Trades in its initial mindset appeared to be something which was fair and represent these people, but in reality we have come to recognize that it’s not as fair as it should be,” said Bernie Melloul, founder of Merit Ontario and chair of the Merit Foundation.

The foundation will be formally constituted on May 2 at Merit Ontario’s annual general meeting in Oakville, Ontario. The plan is to have a significant financial fund for lobbying efforts and they got off to a good start at the recent Merit Ontario reception where they announced the foundation.

Merit Ontario is part of a coalition of construction employers that called for the complete overhaul or the abolishment of OCOT last fall, citing issues over the governance structure, transparency and its perceived union bias.

Merit Foundation’s greatest win would be for OCOT to disappear and for the existing apprenticeship centres to be used. Melloul said his company, Melloul-Blamey Construction Inc., uses many of the apprentices from the Conestoga College program.

“Why are we trying to reinvent something that’s really not broken? Maybe fine tune it here or there, possibly, once you get into the real bowel of how the apprenticeship programs work, maybe you can find some things to repair along the way,” said Melloul.

“But to completely abandon that system and reinvent it from zero, to me doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.”

Along the way Melloul said they would like to work hard on journeyman to apprentice ratios.

“We really want to make it easier for workers in Ontario to get a trade, regardless of the profession that they want to embark in. Clearly right now as it stands, the movement is preventing us from doing that — the movement being the government and all the lobbyists that manipulate the government on a day to day basis.”